Chad will vote tomorrow, Sunday, April 11, in the presidential election. 7 candidates are running, including President Idriss Déby, who has been in power for 30 years and is seeking a sixth term. The election campaign ended on Friday night at midnight. A campaign dominated by a single candidate.
With our special correspondent in Ndjamena, Alexandra Brangeon
President Idriss Déby’s posters are everywhere in Ndjamena. On Friday, his campaign ended with a speech of about thirty minutes in a crowded stadium in the city center.
Conversely, the opposition was almost absent from the capital. Only one candidate had planned to hold a final rally there. But the opposition leader – Nialbe Felix Romadoumngar – did not show up in the end due to convalescence after capturing Coviden.
Three other candidates, former Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padaré, Lydie Beassemda, the first woman to run for president, and Baltazar Alladoum, have also chosen to end their campaign with a demonstration in the provinces.
A campaign that ends against the background of tensions with arrest the day before by four officials small opposition parties and 1 civil society leader, accused by the government of planning terrorist acts, in particular “the attack on the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the dismissal of polling stations”.
The military and nomads must vote this Saturday, the military to ensure security on election day.
In addition, access to social networks or the internet has been blocked in provinces around the capital Ndjamena. Cuts condemned by NGO Amnesty International.
Access to social networks and the Internet is a fundamental right, it is inseparable from freedom of expression. We ask the government to respect international texts but also Chadian laws that guarantee the freedom of expression of all citizens.
Abdoulaye Diarra, researcher on Central Africa at Amnesty
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